Tourism partners invited to participate in marketing plan development

August 8, 2012

Summertime is a crucial time for the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau as we are immersed in researching, brainstorming and drafting our annual sales and marketing plan. Our team is hard at work already, but to draft the best and most effective plan, this year we are looking to our industry partners for your insights. We need your help, and invite you to participate in the planning process in two important ways.

First, we recently sent out a survey about this year's co-operative advertising opportunities in an effort to examine what worked the best. I hope you have completed the survey, and if you haven't, I hope you will. For the first time, we were able to provide reports on co-op marketing to our partners, but you have special insights into how our co-op marketing efforts translated into traffic to your business, and that's why the survey is important to us.

Second, I invite you to attend a brainstorming meeting planned for 3 p.m. on Aug. 7, in our first-floor conference room, 2201 Second Street in the Fort Myers River District. We look forward to hearing from industry partners about your observations and insights from the past year and trends you see emerging in the coming year. We will discuss economic and industry indicators, explore the technologies available for marketing opportunities and brainstorm about trends and audiences that will be crucial to developing a successful marketing plan. For example, already we have received positive feedback about our digital marketing efforts this year. Partners have shared with us that they "tested the waters" with digital advertising this year and plan to expand their efforts next year. This kind of feedback helps us plan the most effective mediums to market our destination.

The VCB staff and our marketing partner, MMGY Global, look forward to adding your insights and perspective to our research as we develop key performance indicators that will establish our tourism goals and craft the most effective marketing strategies to accomplish those goals. We will unveil the sales and marketing plan at the Team Tourism Annual Summit from 8-11 a.m. on Oct. 4 at Harborside Event Center in the Fort Myers River District.

In general, our aim with the sales and marketing plan is always to drive visitor traffic to Lee County and into your properties, attractions, restaurants and shops, which is why your opinions are so important to us. With your help, we are committed to developing an effective marketing plan that meets the needs of all our hospitality partners and enhances the local economy.